


cold coffee

by pandabrite



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, One Shot, just some soft boys, taakitz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 16:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12775152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandabrite/pseuds/pandabrite
Summary: taako's having a bad day, and kravitz knows it. a tender comforting fic.





	cold coffee

**Author's Note:**

> day 16 taz nanowrimo prompt. daily habits and routines. this is short but i feel like it's pretty sweet. c: the prompt list is from tumblr user lucretia-the-director. it's ok kravitz, i can't make coffee either.

Taako’s life had changed in a lot of ways… that was sort the norm for him. When your existence often hinged on the whims of others, it was hard to get comfortable. It was hard to feel like anything was gonna last. It was hard to simply _be_ when there was a constant fear tugging at your coat sleeve-- what if this all ended tomorrow? What if everything was all gone?

In the blink of an eye, shit could change. 

One would think that would be a jarring thought to have while standing over a sink in your underwear with a toothbrush hanging out of your mouth, but Taako was numbly unaffected by it. 

Or, at least, he thought he was…

However, his boyfriend, Kravitz, who was leaned in the doorway behind him looking moderate levels of concerned seemed to think otherwise.

“... Taako?”

Taako slowed his brushing movements and languidly leaned against the counter, looking back, “sup?”

“Um… well, you’ve been brushing the same teeth for the past five minutes.”

Taako froze, lowering the toothbrush from his lips… had he? His gaze escaped Kravitz’s and he instead stared off to the side, a touch frustrated. Oh. _Okay_. Maybe he had been thinking too much, or something? But surely it wasn’t _five_ minutes and surely Kravitz was just exaggerating.

“Well you coulda said something instead of just… I dunno, instead of just letting me stand there like a space case,” Taako huffed as he rinsed the toothbrush off, turned away from him fully now.

Kravitz shook his head and stepped up behind him. Before Taako could react, he’d slid an arm around his waist and tugged him close. 

“S’the matter?” He asked coaxingly. 

“Nothing.” Taako was pouting, but nothing about his body language said that he wanted Kravitz to let go, so he pressed his face into his hair.

“Mm. You don’t have to tell me, but I know that look when I see it.”

Taako didn’t reply. At least, not verbally… instead of answering, he just let his head flop against Kravitz’s chest as he heaved a dramatic sigh.

“It’s okay,” Kravitz muttered into his hair, “though, you do need to finish getting ready, love. You’ll be late.”

“ _Fashionably_ late, though,” Taako pointed out. 

“You can’t use ‘fashionably’ late as an excuse every time you’re late. Then it’s not fashionable, it’s just tacky. You’re tacky and late and no one likes it.” Kravitz was smiling as he spoke, despite gently poking fun. 

Taako blew a raspberry and pulled away from Kravitz, and with a hair toss and a graceful hip bump right to his boyfriend, he pushed past him and out of the bathroom. 

“It’s all _yours_ , tiger.”

Kravitz watched him with a bemused smile as he wandered past, “There’s coffee downstairs.”

Taako hesitated, though he didn’t turn around… he seemed like he wanted to say something, but instead he smiled to himself and continued to head off.

Kravitz’s coffee was fuckin’ terrible.

… but he drank it anyway.

Because if he didn’t beat Kravitz to it, he always made it first. Taako accepted the small kindness quietly, even if he wasn’t so crazy about it.

Their days were always like this.

They were easy. 

They were so much different than what Taako was used to.

He and Kravitz both worked so much that their schedules were a collective whirlwind. Taako had meetings and merchandise calls and business at his school with Ren and he saw Lup once a day, if he could help it, and then he came home and he cooked and--

_It was a lot._

Not that he was complaining-- it was the fuckin’ best his life had ever been. He was always busy. He was successful and surrounded by people he felt like could actually gave a shit about and… the whole giving a shit thing was so new to him that it was almost foreign.

But it worked? He was working it? He kind of rocked it, really? At least, he was certainly getting there.

And it was just so easy to fall into this new lifestyle that the fear of it being taken suddenly away from him remaining was a bitter taste to the sweetness he was fuckin’ blessed with. 

The rug had been jerked from beneath his feet too many times for him to get comfortable so easily… and though, to anyone who didn’t know him, he seemed to be carefree and in love with life, to anyone who _knew_ him… to anyone who was with him in quiet moments… to anyone who could feel the distance growing in his mind and his heart at the idea of this life being swept away from him… it was obvious he was struggling.

Kravitz saw it often enough that he knew exactly when it was happening. He had gotten to know Taako quite well over the months they’d been together, even if Taako was carefully secretive about his feelings and his emotional moments were few and far between.

He’d seen and heard all he needed to about Taako’s life to understand.

So, when Kravitz came downstairs, fully dressed and prepared for a shift in the Astral Plane, and found Taako staring into nothing with a tepid cup of coffee held between his fingers… he knew this… this was a _bad_ day. 

They all had them sometimes. There was no shame in it.

Kravitz considered the situation for a minute before approaching…

“Hey--” He slid behind him, hands tracing up Taako’s forearms to come to rest on top of the hands that loosely held the cool mug, “this coffee’s colder than I am.”

“How about that?” Taako already knew he’d spaced out again, and once again had been caught doing it.

Kravitz placed his chin on the back of his head, humming softly under his breath, “... you remember that thing about being fashionably late?”

“Oh for sure, you called me tacky, really a ding to my pride there… traumatic and kind of hard to forget.”

“Well, I think you might be onto something. Why don’t we just… both try being a little tacky today, hum?” Kravitz rubbed circles on the tops of Taako’s hands.

“... you’re gonna play hooky from the _astral_ plane?”

“Well, they’re dead, they’re not goin’ anywhere, I figure.”

Taako snorted. That was out of his character, for sure, because Kravitz was pretty dutiful and prompt and strict when it came to work related things… _most of the time._

… but he couldn’t deny how tempting it was for him to be greedy and just keep the both of them at home. To keep Kravitz to himself for a while. 

“... you know what? Sure, we can be a little tacky, babe.”

Kravitz smiled into his hair, “Nice. Alright. Okay. I’m setting the scene. The couch, fresh cup of coffee, a little soft music and a whole lot of cuddling, right?”

Taako wrinkled his nose, “Sans the music, this ain’t date night, but I can vibe with a little mano a mano couch time, for sure.”

“Alright, fine, fine.” And as he spoke, he slid his arms away, though one only drifted down to coil around Taako’s waist. 

He allowed it, and was tugged from the kitchen to the living room. Kravitz deposited Taako on the couch, where he curled against the arm, and left to refresh his coffee cup and get one of his own. 

When he returned, he took a seat next Taako, and without a word he swept an arm up behind him and drug him over and onto his chest. He leaned back, breathing a sigh at the feeling of Taako’s warmth curling up against him.

And they stayed like that for a while. Taako was spacing out, and every time he did, he’d press a soft kiss to the top of his head, or a hand stroked over his back, fingers kneading into his tense shoulder muscles. 

After a few minutes, Kravitz spoke, “... you know, that last cup of coffee was literally untouched… and you haven’t touched this one either.”

Taako considered that for a minute, rotating the mug in his fingers, “... s’because your coffee blows, man.”

And Kravitz laughed. The laughter was enough to jostle Taako, who was still pressed up on his chest.

“Been waitin’ for you to drop that one for months. It’s awful, innit? I never made coffee before you came along. So, I’m still figuring it out, I guess.”

“Well, I mean, it’s not quantum physics, brewing a not burnt-ass pot of coffee.”

Unphased, Kravitz poked Taako in the nose, “You drink it anyway.”

Taako wrinkled his nose and remained quiet. Which was fine, he didn’t need to say anything. 

And what had been an innocent intention to simply be late to their obligations turned into a full blown dismissal of them. They were too comfortable there, and Taako needed too much help. It would be alright. 

Kravitz had no intention of leaving Taako if he were struggling.

So they remained, together, tucked into the couch all day. Though they didn’t speak much, it was comfortable and easy. 

An _easy_ habit.

Taako never thought he could find someone who could become a habit so easily… someone who could come into his life and fit like he’d belonged there the whole time.

But, tucked in Kravitz’s arms, the gentle sweep of hands up and down his back, the coaxing pull that brought him back to shore in choppy seas… he knew he belonged there.

This was how it was supposed to be.


End file.
